Does anyone else share my dislike of hitting off the matts at the range.
Seems i can be playing well and hit the first few ok at the range but one bad lateral and its all going that way fast. Put me back out onto the grass though and its generally nicely hit shots most of the way. Must be a mental thing but it seems that those matts combined with the poor quality balls generally associated with ranges just messes up my swing (and as a result golfing confidence). Just gutted that now with the clock changes there's no choice but the range until the weekend. Looks like its short game all the way until spring!
I'm not a big fan of the mats either. On my home course, one of the tee boxes was destroyed by flooding earlier this year. While the tee box was being rebuilt, we had to hit from a range mat, while the rebuilt tee box was landscaped and reseeded.
For a long time I hated mats and could not hit off of them...I did ok off of grass, as long as the ground was soft, and preferred to hit out of the rough...I forced myself to learn to hit off the mats and have since become a much better striker of the ball...
Yep, at the moment i enjoy hitting out of the rough, it has more give. Im working on ball striking, ive read a good way to improve striking of a ball, is hitting out of fairway bunkers, you have to hit it cleanly.
For a long time I hated mats and could not hit off of them...I did ok off of grass, as long as the ground was soft, and preferred to hit out of the rough...I forced myself to learn to hit off the mats and have since become a much better striker of the ball...
The main thing I dislike about mats is that when hitting irons, you're forced to pick it clean rather than being able to take a normal divot. I think this engrains a bad habit.
That is exactly my point...if you can become precise enough to pick it clean you can play off of any surface...I have a bias as the course I play has very tightly mown fairways and in the dry season can become quite hard to the point that cracks appear in the ground...divots are discouraged...then in the wet season the ground is, well, wet and again a big divot is a liability...I played on a course with lush fairways that were the perfect consistency for taking a divot and just adjusted my setup...IMO picking it clean is never a bad habit...
I'm a "digger" so the range mats can really ***** me up.
Exactly. I am too and you really have to catch it very fat off a mat for it to have that much of an effect on the ball. Forgiving mats are the cause of a lot of the "I was hitting them so well at the range" comments we often hear.
Last edited by shaderunner : October 30th, 2006 at 11:51 AM.
I find when I practice off mats my right shoulder starts to hurt midway thru hitting buckets, and then to (somewhat subconsciously) ease the pain, I develope an ouside/in swing plane, end up undercutting the ball, and developing slice swing tendencies that carry over to the course. If all the area courses are on mats (because of growing/maintenance issues on the grass portions), then I generally prefer to play super twilight and kinda practice on the course.
Mats dont really bother me at all. Most of the time I can tell if my swing is on or not. The only times I go to the range are to warm up and stretch my muscles before play.
I actually don't mind mats. I find that when I go to a driving range that has grass to hit off, I end up having to hit out of someone elses divots...
When I hit off of mats I can just concentrate on my swing...
October 30th, 2006, 09:04 AM
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